Business daily Vedomosti has analyzed the ratings of the two top officials – President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The author of the article, the head of the Department of social and cultural studies of Levada Center, Alexei Levinson, notes record low approval ratings of their activities by the public – 66 and 69%.
However, according to the expert, by world standards, these figures are very high, so he highlights not the fact of the slipping ratings, but its nature.
“The younger part of the society, which is more prosperous, feels good and keeps the basic attitudes of the Putin and Medvedev-Putin years, – notes the newspaper. – However, the older part of the nation has begun a systemic breakaway from those seemingly unshakable foundations”.
The author marks another point, too: the willingness to support one or the other in the presidential election is also virtually the same – about 20%.
“And it does not mean that Medvedev is catching up with Putin, nor does it mean that the older voters are equally fond of both leaders. It means another thing, – says Levinson. – When asked in an interview, “Who would you like to see as the candidate for the presidential elections in Russia in the spring of 2012”, Russians of 40 years of age and older most often answered:
“Neither one nor the other”.
“It is essential that this response happens to the most frequent in the survey of grass-roots leaders, the representatives of the bearing part of the notorious vertical of power. The senior and understanding voters seem to require an alternative not within the system, but beyond it”, the expert believes.
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